A Call To Arms: Fight Back Against Book Banning

As we have seen in the recent weeks, the political gridlock of our country has reached a point of cartoonish levels. During this whole debt ceiling debate, I could never be sure if Eric Cantor was really House Majority Leader, or a bad guy from a James Cameron movie. It was confusing. But despite so many differences in opinion and ideology, there are usually a few things everyone can agree on. Usually they revolve around how awesome America is at things, and the greatest of all these is our personal freedom and liberty. You can't go to any kind of political rally without at least one person chest-pounding about how great a nation we are because of it. And really, they are right to. We enjoy many great advantages over much of the world, mainly due to our 1st Amendment rights. Our freedom of expression, and freedom to consume other's expressions and opinions, are fundamental to why this nation was founded in the first place.

And that is why stories like this just piss me off. Yes, book banning in the United States. Setting aside the fact that I absolutely love Slaughterhouse 5 (and Kurt Vonnegut in general), this is unbelievable. Both Slaughterhouse 5 and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler were banned by the Republic School Board in Montana. The reason? A local college professor complained on religious grounds, claiming that the content of the books was offensive to his interpretation of the Bible, and should not be taught to his children. Not that his kids need to worry about it, since they are reportedly home schooled, but why would that stop him? And now, no one at Republic High School will have either book as part of their curriculum, regardless of what their own personal beliefs on the Bible may be.

The fact that this happened is a big deal. Obviously, it is a breach of the Constitution, allowing the government (this is a public school) to favor one religious ideology over others. But let's set aside the religious aspect for a moment. This is censorship, pure and simple. In this case it is due to overly-religious nut bags, but in China it's politically motivated. In the Middle-East it's religious motivation of a different breed. Whatever the initial trigger, the outcome is the same: someone else is deciding what can be viewed by others based on a narrow-minded world view. This is unacceptable, especially in a country like the USA.

No book or film or anything should ever be banned. Even atrocious or hateful works of art can be used to gain some kind of knowledge. You don't have to support the ideals of the Nazi party to watch Triumph of the Will and see just how masterful a piece of manipulative propaganda it is. And, learning that and seeing how they did it, you can more easily recognize when other groups or organizations try to use the same tricks and guard yourself from it. Knowledge is power, and you gain knowledge from exposure, even (and especially) from works that go against your world view. Perhaps Slaughterhouse 5 does offend your view of the Bible. So what? You don't have to like it. But it challenged your view, and if you walk away with it intact, then you have gained something invaluable from the experience. That is what people don't seem to understand about having their beliefs challenged; it forces us to reexamine our position and make sure it is one we want to take. Banning books just puts the blinders on, and you can start down a path of believing things simply because you have never been shown an alternative, and that is a terrible reason to believe anything.

So this should be a call to arms. Fight back against would-be intellectual oppressors. Do not allow small groups of people to decide what you can or can't read. If it happens in your area, stand up and speak out. For the immediate, you can help donate money to the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, who are sending out free copies of Slaughterhouse 5 to any Republic High School student who would like one. But more importantly, always keep yourself open to ideas that might be contrary to what you may believe. Challenge your world view. Even if you come away with the same stance you had before, it is a more enhanced stance that has the benefit of withstanding alternative viewpoints. Always strive to learn and take in something new. You may even find that you had been wrong, which there is no shame in. We are all wrong from time to time, and it's our ability to learn and change our minds that makes it all ok.

Banned Book Week is coming up next month, a week dedicated to books that have been challenged or are being challenged for a variety of reasons (though in this country it tends to be for religious reasons more often than not). Make a point to read one (or a few) and decide for yourself if they really are so offensive. Maybe they aren't, and people have made hullaballoo out of nothing (as is often the case, since they usually refuse to read it themselves and thus don't really know what they're talking about). Maybe it is offensive to you, but then, maybe that's point. Maybe you are supposed to feel offended so that you acknowledge and think about a given issue. You will never know until you read for yourself. Everyone should have that right.